Ten minutes of tenderness
by public static void
Summary: Unspeakable Number Eighteen has trouble with a muggle contraption found in the Lestrange home. He finds a life he doesn't have but most deeply wants. For Hailey.


This is for **Haley** (hmweasley), in the July Monthly One-Shot Exchange of the HPFC forum. Prompts are at the bottom :)

Haley, I hope you like this :)

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The aftermath of his last project was still fresh in his mind when he came home that night. A faint, constant popping sound in his left ear accompanied the existential crisis that was barely begining to set in after discovering the potential of the contraption.

Albus exhaled all the worries of the day as he opened the door to his flat. The haven he created to escape his father's attempts at reconciliation felt more like home that the house at Godric's Hollow ever felt. And that night, Albus really needed _home_.

The strange thing they found in the Lestrange summer house had started buzzing when the Unspeakable team approached it, and the consequent explosion had temporarily deafened them. He wondered how the thing had felt them closing in if it was made by completely muggle means and had been surrounded in vast amounts of magic for what seemed to be decades.

He poured some muggle wine on a glass and took the bottle with him to the study, just in case he needed some more before finishing his report on the day's happenings. And he had to finish because the Unspeakable Number One wanted to know everything about it at seven in the morning, for Merlin's sake.  
Albus sighed and he sat on the chair his mother bought for him —a sign that she respected and supported his choice to get away— and stared at the form in front of him.

**Date:**  
**Number:**  
**Project's number:**  
**Event:**  
**Signature**

Five elements, always hard to fill. Sometimes even the date seemed blurry to Albus.

His hand reached for the wine glass and he snorted at finding it empty already. He had just sat down. Perhaps he had some trouble with alcohol as Hugo always said.

Instead of chasing that thought, Albus reached for the bottle, finding it empty again.

He frowned and stood, almost sending the chair backwards as he did, with the intention of getting another one from the kitchen.  
But as soon as he reached the door the popping sounds on his ear stopped. His hand hovered just above the doorknob of the study when everything stopped making sense.

He saw the sound of his breathing coming in red and burgundy hues, tasted the magic in the air as it closed around him, smelled the sight of his study fading into a pit of black.

* * *

_When he woke up, he was not alone._

_Albus opened his eyes slowly, narrowing them almost immediately when he felt the prickling of sunlight in them._

_He brought a hand to cover them and heard a gasp._

_"Albus! Thank Morgana you're alright."_

_He didn't know who the man was, but he couldn't move precisely as he wanted. He felt his face extend in a smile that hurt his cheeks. He tried to speak and his voice croaked._

_The man laughed._

_"Be careful. Healer Bones said you shouldn't burst into song just yet." The man said, sitting down by Albus' side on the bed. He tried to recoil from the sensation of him touching his bare skin where his arms brushed against each other, but he couldn't. He couldn't, and he felt himself lean into the man._

_"You're cuddly today," he said happily and Albus started to open his eyes again. This time the light didn't sting. "Perhaps we'll keep you this way."_

_The man turned out to be someone he knew from the department. He was, if Albus was not mistaken, Unspeakable Number Thirty-Seven, and Albus only knew that because the man was such a chatterbox that his voice remained forever ingrained in his brain before the Unspeakable in charge of the recruits charmed their voices to be generic._

_Albus wondered, why was Scorpius Malfoy cuddling him?_

_He tried to get away, to stand on his own feet and seek a Healer to explain the madness going on. Perhaps he was hallucinating, but why would Malfoy be in his mind so vividly if that was the case._

_"I don't have details, but it seems that all your team suffered the same blackout. Number One gave the order to bring you all to the Department and you've been here for little more than twelve hours."_

_Twelve hours. He was out for twelve hours and the world had gone mad. Perhaps it was just him, though, because it was just insane how comfortable Malfoy's arms were wrapped tight around his torso. No one had ever felt as warm, and suddenly Albus thought that fighting the urge to be close was not worth it. Besides, he could find out what had happened because Malfoy seemed to know, but Albus didn't understand why they would disclose such a sensitive project to him, who was two whole years younger than him (if memory of Hogwarts served right) and not in his team._

_"Hey," Malfoy said, kissing Albus temple. "What's wrong?"_

_If he could be in charge of his own body reactions, he'd blush and ask for an explanation. But his body seemed content enough, and he even nuzzled Malfoy's neck for a moment before feeling dizzy._

_"Okay, lie back," Malfoy said, helping Albus to do so. He looked worried and Albus tried to smile and say he was alright but very confused. His voice failed him again and Malfoy laughed._

_"Al, if all you're gonna do is look at me with puppy eyes I won't get any explaining done before Number One comes barging in demanding to know everything you know. I barely stopped them from extracting your memories, and only because our father's came in time to push their fame around."_

_There, Albus snorted! He was sure it had been himself and not the body of the Albus that was so familiar with Scorpius Malfoy. He couldn't believe his father would do something for him, much less something that tied the man with the fame he so much loathed._

_"Don't be like that," Malfoy said and poked his side gently, almost tenderly. Albus felt heat rise in his untangible face. "I know my father wants us apart, but hey! This shows he cares for you. Perhaps he won't cast me out of the family for marrying you instead of that Selwyn witch."_

_The body started laughing while Albus felt dumbfounded by the idea. Him, married to Scorpius Malfoy! What a strange hallucination!_

_"But anyways. I better tell you what happened in these twelve hours. Number One will come anytime now and you know how she gets."_

_Albus knew how Unspeakable Number One acted when something out of the ordinary happened. In her department, everything must function as the stars in the sky: orderly even amongst the chaos of the universe._

_So he listened attentively and didn't let himself be distracted by how pale Scorpius' hair seemed under the white light of the room, or by how his grey eyes roamed his face worriedly, or how his hands moved with his words, in a strange rhythym that reminded Albus of a clock's handle, moving, ticking..._

_"...and the contraption is being monitored but..."_

_That was it! The contraption that wrecked his figurative world for a minute. The muggle thing showed all the posibilities of the universe from its creation in a sequence of numbers, he remembered that now._

_"...eems your team did something to it that can't be undone..."_

_The stasis spell of Jenny Longbottom's family could only be broken by the same wand. Perhaps that's why they couldn't undo it._

_"...but don't you worry. I'll take care of you until you're alright again and we can..."_

_And Malfoy's voice was so gentle and yet strong, like waves crashing against a glass beach like the one he visited when he was six with his mother and brother and sister..._

_Scorpius laughed. "Are you're sleepy again, Al? Sleep then. I'll tell Number One you'll speak to her soon. She won't dare force you awake with the threat your father made."_

_Was this a world in which his father cared for him?_

_"I love you, Al. You know that, right?"_

_Albus forced his eyes open and he saw wonders in Scorpius' smile. He knew Scorpius loved him. Or not him, but the Albus of this alternate timeline._

_He closed his eyes again and knew no more of himself._

* * *

The next time he woke up, Albus could move and speak and simply do as he wanted. This was his own body, and most probably his own timeline.

The memories of the contraption's explosion and subsequent securing under the stasis spell of Jenny Longbottom came to him clear as water. But even more clear he could see the bright eyes of Scorpius Malfoy in his mind. He could hear his caring, loving voice speaking to him even through timelines, universes, dimensions... He had never felt his loneliness so overwhelming.

"You're awake," came the voice of Unspeakable Number One. Albus immediately sobered up and opened his eyes. "Good."

"Chief," he said as greeting. His hand went to his throat and rubbed it. "What day is it?"

"I'll ask and you'll answer for now, Number Eighteen."

"Yes, ma'am," Albus didn't look down even if he was chastised. He couldn't let her know of anything he had seen, but he didn't dare to look away; if she noticed him hiding something, she'll look in his memories and he wasn't ready to share those few minutes in that other timeline, dimension or whatever it was. It felt strangely intimate, and even he felt an intruder when he realized that the Other Albus and Scorpius hadn't known he was there.

"Good. Let's start with what you did after checking out for the day."

Albus sighed and spoke. He answered her questions to the best of his ability, recalling details he hadn't thought important then, and always making sure to keep his Occlumancy shields working, looking straight into her eyes and not wavering.

When she finally finished, Albus sighed.

He'd have to stay in the Department's infirmary for the next three days along with his team, to be monitored. He really didn't mind, or wouldn't have minded if Scorpius Malfoy's tenderness had stayed far from his memories. He wanted to go out and seek the younger wizard, test the waters and see if he could feel the same with this Malfoy than the Other Albus felt with his own.

It would be easy, Albus figured. Unspeakable Number Thirty-Seven worked in the Love Chamber. It was just across the Time where he worked.

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**Prompts used:** Albus/Severus, romance, (word) contraption, (scenario) two (or more) alternate timelines within one story.

And, to clear any possible misunderstandings: Scorpius is two years younger than Albus in the main timeline, which means they didn't get to know each other as they did in the second one (which follows a bit more of what Rowling says it happened).

I appreciate if you read it and really hope you liked it at least a bit. Go and check out my other stories if you did ;)


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